


A much-needed break

by aconitum (sugarandspace)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, College Student Stiles Stilinski, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, Stress Relief, Worried Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/aconitum
Summary: Finals are keeping Stiles busy and Derek stops by to make sure he's also taking care of himself.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 12
Kudos: 170





	A much-needed break

**Author's Note:**

> A short little something I wrote while dealing with my own courses coming to an end 😂

Derek arrives at the door of Stiles’ dorm room a little after 6 pm on a Friday.

He’s been debating coming over for a few days now and decided today that he couldn’t wait any longer and had to do it. He’s been calling Stiles and texting him like they normally do while Stiles is at the campus and he’s been able to tell that his boyfriend hasn’t been quite himself. Stiles had insisted that he was fine, but the short replies and fewer messages hinted otherwise. Derek knew Stiles was busy with finals but he needed to see for himself that the other man was okay.

That’s why he had packed a bag for the weekend and drove to see Stiles.

He hadn’t told him he was coming over, knowing that Stiles would have tried to convince him that it wasn’t needed. 

Derek knocks on the door and gets no response.

He tries again and when Stiles still doesn’t open the door, he tries the handle. He knows the other man is in the room, had spotted his trusty Jeep in the parking lot of the building when he arrived. Maybe Stiles was sleeping? Unlikely, knowing Stiles's habit to say up until the small hours, but still a possibility. To Derek’s luck, the door is unlocked.

He opens the door slowly to reveal Stiles’ dorm room. The room is a small one, having barely enough room to fit a bed and a desk. The room is very messy as well, the state of the floor hinting that Stiles hasn’t really been doing much laundry recently. 

Pushing the door completely open, Derek finally spots Stiles. He’s sitting at his desk, his back to the door. He’s wearing headphones, which explains why he hadn’t heard Derek knocking. 

Derek steps into the room and closes the door behind himself, slightly worried when Stiles still doesn’t have any idea that someone is standing behind him. It makes something twist uncomfortably in Derek’s chest to think about how vulnerable Stiles is like this, how anyone could walk in and Stiles wouldn’t realise until it was too late.

That isn’t the only thing that worries Derek.

The room stinks. Besides it being clear that Stiles hasn’t aired the room in what was probably days, the air is also thick in chemosignals that hint at strong stress and anxiety. Since starting to spend more time with Stiles, Derek had learned to associate the small undercurrent of anxiety with the other man's scent but this was something else. It was intense and nearly made Derek choke.

Focusing more on the figure that was hunched over the desk, fingers of his other hand buried deep in his hair, Derek can hear the heart that's beating too fast and the way Stiles isn’t breathing properly. It isn’t quick panicked breathing like when he is on the brink of a panic attack, but rather slow and shallow, like he has trouble breathing deep.

Everything in Derek screams that he needs to help his boyfriend.

He sets his bag down on the floor and walks towards Stiles, trying to make noise as he does so. He hopes that it alerts him but there’s no luck, Stiles is still looking at his laptop when Derek stands behind him. He doesn’t know how to proceed, because he doesn’t want Stiles to freak out.

He decides to take hold of the back of Stiles’ chair and spin him gently towards him. At least that way Stiles can immediately see that it's only him.

As expected, Stiles jumps in fright as soon as Derek starts turning the chair, but calms down when he notices Derek. He put his hand on top of his furiously beating heart before lowering the headphones.

“Derek!” He greets. “What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you,” Derek tells him seriously. “I wanted to see that you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” Stiles says, to which Derek only replies with raised eyebrows which makes Stiles continue.

“Okay yeah, I’ve been feeling a little stressed,” Stiles amends. “But what are you to expect when it’s the finals season?”

“You need to remember to take care of yourself as well,” Derek tells him gently.

“Yeah, yeah,” Stiles brushes him off. “I’ll have plenty of time for that later when I’m done with my exams. But I really need to pass these exams first.”

Derek looks at Stiles’ desk that is a mess of notes and random pieces of paper and books and pens. It’s chaos, but Derek has no doubt there’s some kind of order in it in Stiles’ mind.

Stiles goes to stand up but he sways dangerously when he does so. He has to lower himself back into the desk chair, his hand holding onto the back of it for extra balance.

“Whoa.”

“Are you okay?” Derek is at his side immediately, hovering in case Stiles needs help.

“Yeah,” Stiles says and waves his hand in dismissal. “Just felt a little dizzy.”

“When was the last time you ate?” Derek asks him, already knowing he won’t like the answer. He looks at the energy drink cans on the table and adds, “Or drank water?”

Stiles thinks about it for a while, for too long if you ask Derek, and eventually replies with, “It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Stiles,” Derek says with an exasperated tone. 

“I’ve just been busy with studying,” Stiles tries to defend himself. “I get into the zone and the next thing I know the whole day has gone by. I’m sorry I haven’t replied to all your messages. My phone distracts me so I had to put it over there.”

Stiles points in the direction of his unmade bed and sure enough, Derek can see his phone on the part of the bed that’s as far away from the desk as possible.

“I don’t care if you don’t reply to all my texts,” Derek says honestly. “But I do care about how you’re doing. I love you Stiles and I don’t like seeing you treat yourself poorly. I can tell you haven’t been sleeping properly either.”

Stiles probably knows that it’s pointless to try to deny that, the bags under his eyes so dark that Derek is sure even Stiles hasn’t been able to miss them.

“Take a shower,” Derek says gently. “I’m going to go to the burger place down the street and get us something to eat.”

“But-” Stiles starts and looks at his desk, obviously wanting to go back to studying.

“When is your next test?” Derek asks.

“On Monday,” Stiles replies. “It’s the last one.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Derek says. “Let’s make a deal. You relax for one night and I’ll help you study tomorrow. We’ll take the evening off tomorrow as well and then I’ll help you on Sunday. You won’t learn anything if you push yourself to your limits. You need rest to process the information.”

“You’re going to stay the whole weekend?” Stiles asks, his expression so hopeful that Derek makes a mental promise right then to visit Stiles more often.

“The whole weekend,” Derek promises. 

“Okay,” Stiles agrees and Derek can’t help but mirror the smile on his face.

-.-.-

When Derek comes back to the room with a bag of food in his hands, he finds Stiles sitting cross-legged on the bed, his hair still wet from his shower. He’s wearing similar attire to what he was wearing earlier - a t-shirt, a hoodie, and sweatpants - but Derek can tell that these ones are clean. The bed has also been made, and the dirty laundry has been gathered in the laundry basket. It looks like Stiles has also done a few other things to tidy the room up a little while he was gone, and he’s now reading one of his textbooks.

He lifts his eyes from the book when Derek closes the door. Derek levels him with a look that says ‘really?’ to which Stiles replies with a sheepish smile. He puts the book back on the desk and scoots further up on the bed, making Derek room to sit next to him.

Derek takes his shoes and jacket off and sits down next to Stiles.

“Jesus, how much food did you buy?” Stiles asks when Derek starts to unload everything to the bed.

“Enough,” Derek says. “It’s clear you haven’t been eating well.”

“Geez Der, way to make a guy feel insecure,” Stiles jokes.

“Not what I meant and you know it,” Derek says. “I was more referring to how you almost fainted earlier when you tried to get up.”

“Ah,” Stiles replies and doesn’t argue further.

They eat their food while talking about this and that, updating each other on things that have happened that they haven’t told on the phone or via texts. It makes Derek happy to see that Stiles is able to eat almost everything he brought for him.

After the food, they decide to watch a movie, and Stiles pulls Netflix up on his laptop while Derek takes off his jeans and shirt. They scoot under the covers and set the laptop on top of their legs, and Derek pulls Stiles close.

They are maybe fifteen minutes into the movie when Derek feels Stiles fall asleep against him, his breaths peaceful and deep.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me from [tumblr](https://sugarandspace.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarandspace_)!


End file.
